Vegetables (and fruits, I guess)

This week we’re celebrating harvest with some vegetable (and fruit) themed songs and activities

BOOKS:

We’re reading Roll Roll, Little Pea by Cécile Bergame and Magali Attiogbé, translated by Angust Yuen-Killick and Up Down and Around by Katherine Ayres, illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott.

WARM-UPS:

To warm up, we sang our opening song “Clap Everybody and Say Hello” adapted from Kathy Reid-Naiman.

Then, we sang “Plant Plant the Veggie Seeds” from Preschool Express, sung to the tune of “Row Row Row Your Boat”

Plant, plant the carrot seeds
Plant them in the sun
Water them, water them
Water them, water them
Gardening’s so much fun

You can adapt this rhyme by planting any kind of seed. For actions, we squatted and put our seeds in the dirt, made a big circle over our heads for the sun, and then bent over like the teapot in “I’m a Little Teapot” to water our crops.

We also sang “Spicy Salsa” from Intellidance. I cannot recommend this one enough. It is an adaptation of “Peanut Butter and Jelly.” I shortened it up a little bit for my audience, but there’s no reason you couldn’t do the whole song.

CHORUS:
Salsa, spicy salsa.  SALSA!
Salsa, spicy salsa.  SALSA!
Salsa, spicy salsa.  SALSA!

Verses:

1. First you take tomatoes and you crush ‘em
   You crush ‘em, you crush ‘em, crush ‘em, crush ‘em
   First you take tomatoes and you crush ‘em
   You crush ‘em, you crush ‘em, crush ‘em, crush ‘em

2. Then you take an onion and you chop it
   You chop it, you chop it, chop it, chop it
   [REPEAT]

3. Then you take a pepper and you slice it
   You slice it, you slice it, slice it, slice it
   [REPEAT]

4. Then you take a chip and you dip it
   You dip it, you dip it, dip it, dip it
   [REPEAT]

5. Then you take your chip and you eat it
   You eat it, you eat it, eat it, eat it
   [REPEAT]

Then we listened to “Fruit Salad Salsa” by The Laurie Berkner Band and did some actions that are mentioned in the song.

PROP AND INSTRUMENT SONGS:

This week we used three props! A scarf, a set of wrist jingle bells, and a drum.

Scarf song: “Green Zucchini” to the tune of “Alouette” from Jbrary

Green zucchini, I like green zucchini
Green zucchini, that’s what I like best.
Do you like it on your head?
Yes I like it on my head.
On your head? On my head.
Oooooohhhhhh!

Verses: on my shirt, on my socks

Bell song: “Vegetables” to the tune of “Jingle Bells” from Preschool Express

Vegetables, vegetables,
Carrots, peas, tomatoes.
Oh, what fun it is to eat,
Zucchini, corn, potatoes!

Drum song: We listened to the song “The Best Fruit” by The Pop-Ups and used our fingertips, our hands, and our fingernails to make different sounds on the drum.

CLOSING SONGS:

Freeze Dance: For our freeze dance, we listened to “Beans are Best” by The Beanies. I got super into my dance this week and forgot to pause the music to freeze everyone, but my assistant came to the rescue and helped out.

Stretch: We did some vegetable inspired yoga poses. We were an asparagus spear in extended mountain pose. We did a side stretch to become a banana, then opened our arms up to cactus arms to be a broccoli. Finally we waterfalled down to forward fold as we watered our crops and then became a tiny seed in child’s pose.

Goodbye song: “Skinnamarink” on ukulele